A comparison of the educational attainment of white natives and children of white immigrants in the United States for a 90-year period from 1890 to 1980 indicates that the higher achievement of the children of immigrants has been a general phenomenon over several decades. Natives are defined as American-born with American-born parents; children of…

Drawing on information and references in the ERIC system, this literature review describes research related to a child's developmental placement. The issues examined include school entrance age; predictive validity, reliability, and features of Gesell School Readiness Assessment; retention; and the effectiveness of developmental placement. A…

Today's administrators must exercise caution in using student retention as a means of responding to changing social values and to the current media attention on declining standardized test scores. Recent reviews of hundreds of studies of student retention have concluded that some low achieving students do benefit from retention, but the majority…

This study examined one urbanized Southeastern county school district's experience in attempting to implement an educational reform program that called, among other things, for higher standards. By focusing on standardized norm-based and criterion-referenced educational tests administered to students according to grade level, this school system…

This study examines promotion and retention standards at the elementary school level in Detroit Public Schools. Forty-eight teachers from five schools participated. Data collected for each of 420 randomly selected students included: (1) mastery and nonmastery ratings on each of the essential skills in language arts, affective education, and…

A study focused on promotion/retention policies, retention rates, and the problems/objectives associated with their implementation. Thirty-three of the 43 members of the Council of the Great City Schools responded to a survey that measured three demographic characteristics: the percentage of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch; the…

The purpose of this report is to describe the educational history, status, and standardized test performance of the least successful members of the kindergarten class of 1978-79. All 253 students who were in kindergarten for the first time in 1978-79, who had not reached grade 4 by 1982-83, and who were still in the system were included in the…

This handbook, issued in conjunction with the Governor's "Agenda for Excellence in Pennsylvania Public Schools," provides recommendations for revising promotion policies and practices in Pennsylvania schools. After a brief introduction, the results of a survey of promotion and retention practices are presented in summary form, followed…

The Austin Independent School District Office of Research and Evaluation (AISD-ORE) has recently completed a three year study of the effects of retention on elementary students. As in other studies comparing the academic achievement of elementary retainees and similar students not retained, findings indicated that promoted students generally show…

A study investigated the educational value of retaining low achieving elementary school students in the same grade for an additional year. Subjects were 56 students who had completed at least one grade level beyond the grade in which they had been retained. The students had each been tested with the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills during the…

This document explores the problem of educational wastage in elementary and secondary schools of United Nations member countries. Educational wastage exists in the (1) failure of a system to provide universal education, (2) failure to recruit children into the system, (3) failure to hold children within the system, (4) failure of the system to set…

Proposes guidelines for a student promotion/retention policy including clear academic goals and expectations, the use of multidisciplinary teams to make decisions about grade repetition and monitor student progress, opportunities for the students to "catch-up" with their age peers, and program alternatives to retention and social…

Reviews research on the academic performance of early entrants, noting that damaging consequences for children who are not developmentally mature may continue throughout their school careers. Suggests possible ways to reduce the magnitude of the "unready" child's problem. (KS)

The goal of the report is to provide useful information to Indiana policymakers as they debate the merits of full versus half day programs. This report sought to answer three questions: (1) What does the national research say about the effectiveness of full day kindergarten; (2) What does the Indiana data say about full day kindergarten; and (3)…

The Michigan School Readiness Program (MSRP), a state-initiated and state-funded preschool program, serves more than 20,000 four-year-olds identified as being at risk for school failure each year. A longitudinal evaluation followed 2 cohorts selected from 7 sites from kindergarten through Grade 3 for Cohort 1 and through Grade 2 for Cohort 2. Each…